1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the field of semiconductor memory devices and, more particularly to semiconductor memory devices having a distributed cell plate and/or digit line equilibrate voltage generator.
2. Description of the Related Art
FIG. 1 illustrates a portion of a dynamic random access memory (DRAM) device 300. The DRAM 300 includes a plurality of dynamic memory cells 312, a plurality of word lines 314 and a plurality of bit lines 316. For convenience purposes, only two memory cells 312, word lines 314 and bit lines 316 are illustrated in FIG. 1.
The memory cells 312 are organized as an array of columns and rows. Each column typically includes numerous memory cell pairs, such as the single pair illustrated in FIG. 1. Although not illustrated, a typical column may contain 1024 or 2048 pairs of memory cells 312. Each memory cell 312 comprises a storage cell 320 (e.g., a capacitor) and an access device 322, which is typically a metal oxide semiconductor field effect transistor (MOSFET).
Two supply voltages are usually required to operate and access a DRAM cell 312. The first supply voltage is typically a ground and the second supply voltage is typically referred to as Vcc. A first side or cell plate of the storage cell 320 is connected to an intermediate cell plate reference voltage DVC2 having a potential between Vcc and ground. This cell plate reference voltage DVC2 is typically equal to Vcc/2, or the average of the first and second memory cell supply voltages. The cell plate reference voltage DVC2 is produced by a cell plate generator circuit (not shown). The first cell plates of all of the storage cells 320 are typically connected to the cell plate reference voltage DVC2.
A second side of each storage cell 320 is connected to one active terminal of an access device 322. One of the bit lines 316 is connected to the other active terminal of the access device 322. The gate or control terminal of the access device 322 is connected to one of the word lines 314. Thus, each memory cell 312 is connected to a word line 314 and a bit line 316. The word lines 314 and bit lines 316 form a two-dimensional array having a plurality of intersections. A single memory cell 312 corresponds to each intersection. At an intersection, a word line 314 is used to selectively activate the corresponding memory cell 312. Activating the memory cell 312 connects its storage cell 320 to the corresponding bit line 316, which allows conventional memory access operations (e.g., data read, data write and refresh) to occur.
The illustrated DRAM 300 also contains an equilibrate circuit 330. The equilibrate circuit 330 includes two MOSFET transistors 332, 334. One active terminal of each of each transistor 332,334 is connected to receive the cell plate reference voltage DVC2. The other active terminal of each transistor 332, 334 is connected to one of the adjacent bit lines 316. The equilibrate circuit 330 is responsive to an equilibrate signal EQ to simultaneously connect the reference voltage DVC2 to the bit lines 316. During normal memory access operations, the equilibrate signal EQ is activated to xe2x80x9cprechargexe2x80x9d the bit lines 316 to the reference voltage DVC2 prior to activating the corresponding access transistor 322 and accessing the memory cells 312.
Typically, the first cell plate of each storage cell 320 is maintained at the non-varying cell plate reference voltage DVC2. The second cell plate is charged to either the first memory cell supply voltage or the second memory cell supply voltage, depending on whether a xe2x80x9c0xe2x80x9d or xe2x80x9c1xe2x80x9d is being written to the cell 320. Data is read from the cells 312 of the DRAM 300 by activating a word line 314 (via a row decoder), which couples all of the memory cells 312 corresponding to that word line 314 to respective bit lines 316, which define the columns of the array. One or more bit lines 316 are also activated. When a particular word line 314 is activated, sense amplifier circuitry connected to a bit line 316 detects and amplifies the data bit transferred from the storage cell 320 to its bit line 316 by measuring the potential difference between the activated bit line 316 and a reference line which may be an inactive bit line. The operation of typical DRAM sense amplifier circuitry is described, for example, in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,627,785; 5,280,205; and 5,042,011, all assigned to Micron Technology Inc., and incorporated by reference herein.
While the DRAM 300 has proven to be a reliable architecture, it is not without its shortcomings. For example, the reference voltage DVC2 is generated by a centralized voltage generator circuit within the array of the DRAM 300. If the array is divided into subarrays, then the DRAM may contain multiple voltage generator circuits. Reference voltage DVC2 lines are then fanned out to the components of the array/subarrays. The voltage generator circuit is relatively large and consumes precious space within the array. There is a desire and need to reduce the amount of space used by the voltage generator circuitry in the array of the DRAM 300.
In addition, the reference voltage DVC2 generated by the voltage generator circuit may swell or experience dips in different portions of the DRAM 300. That is, different sections of the memory array will have different voltage levels. This adversely effects the operation of the standard DRAM functions such as reads, writes and precharging. Accordingly, there is a desire and need to reduce the amount of reference voltage swells and dips experienced in today""s DRAM arrays.
Another problem experienced by the conventional DRAM 300 is bit line coupling. With the current DRAM configuration, the cell plates of the storage cells 320 move, which couples noise onto the bit lines 316. If there is too much movement, there will be too much noise on the bit lines 316. Bit line coupling creates memory cell margin problems, and are a direct result of the current centralized voltage generator techniques. Accordingly, there is a desire and need for a DRAM having a voltage generator circuit that reduces bit line coupling within its arrays.
The present invention provides voltage generator circuitry that substantially reduces the amount of reference voltage swells and dips in a DRAM memory array.
The present invention further provides voltage generator circuitry that substantially reduces bit line coupling within a DRAM memory array.
The above and other features and advantages of the invention are achieved by providing a voltage reference circuit in the periphery of a memory array. Each subarray of the memory array is associated with a respective voltage driver circuit responsible for generating the cell plate and equilibrate reference voltage for the memory cells in the subarray. The voltage reference circuit is connected to and controls each voltage driver so that each driver generates the proper reference voltage. The distributed circuitry substantially reduces the amount of space used within the memory array while mitigating the problems of prior art voltage generator circuits.